S J Watson: Before I Go To Sleep Sunday, Oct 23 2011 

great read and mystery to die for and writers , , Auntie M Writes Crime 12:59 am

Before this novel hit, ninety percent of its readers thought S J Watson must be a woman.

Instead, the author is a 40 yr-old audiologist with the British National Health System. Before I Go To Sleep is one of the finest psychological thrillers I’ve read in years.

The jacket blurb reads: Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? This is the rich premise that Watson mined when he was accepted in 200 into the first Faber Academy Writing a Novel course. The result is nothing short of spectacular, leaving Dennis Lehane to comment: “Exceptional . . . It left my nerves jangling for hours after I finished the last page.”

Watson’s protagonist wakes up in the morning in a strange bed, lying next to a man she doesn’t recognize. When she went to sleep she was in her twenties; the face that looks back at her in the mirror is middle-aged and unfamiliar. So begins the Christine’s journey, over and over, as each day her husband has to explain that she has suffered a terrible accident twenty years ago that has left her without the ability to form new memories. Her husband, Ben, is the soul of patience as he explains that Christine is now forty-seven, has been in and out of hospitals and institutions, and that he has to go through this with her each morning when she wakes up.

Christine is stunned, and the reader feels her struggle every day to comprehend what has happened to her. Then one day she is at home when Ben is working and she answers a call from a Dr. Nash, who claims he is a neurologist she’s been working with without Ben’s knowledge. He explains she has a hidden journal and tells her where to find it in the back of her closet. For the past few weeks, she has been recording her thoughts and actions. Christine turns the pages, reading past entries about her mornings with Ben’s patient explanation, her secret sessions with Dr. Nash, and even small flashes of memories of scenes from her former life.

The reader cannot help but be drawn into Christine’s plight. Even as the awfulness of her situation becomes apparent, it raises unsettling questions. Is it possible to love or trust without memory?

As she reads more and more of her journal, and documents the memories she is having, her questions to Ben also become unsettling. What was their life like before her accident? What happened to her plans to be a novelist?

Christine reads more and more of her journal each day and keeps documenting the memories she is having, while her  questions to Ben become unsettling. What was their life like before her accident? What happened to her plans to be a novelist? Why has her former best friend deserted her? And perhaps most disturbing: why didn’t they have a child? For inside, deep down in an irrevocable place, Christine is convinced that she’s a mother.

As Christine’s makes journal entries build, she begins to pick up inconsistencies in Ben’s story. A huge one concerns the details of the accident that robbed her of her memory. She tries to reconstruct her past as her memory flashes start to build. The tensions rises as the pieces of Christine’s past life don’t seem to hang together, and the story builds to a stunning climax.

It would be a shame to tell you any more of this intriguing plot; you’ll simply have to read it for yourself, and I promise you’ll stay up at night to have the resolution revealed.

Watson says this past year has been “the weirdest year of my life.” His debut novel has quickly risen in the charts, and been translated into several languages and published in foreign countries. Ridley Scott has optioned the movie and signed Rowan Jaffe to write the screenplay and direct. It will be interesting to see how this novel translates to the screen, and who is cast as Christine, as the entire novel is told from her point of view. Don’t miss the chance to read this original story before the movie hits the screen.

 

 

Aline Templeton X 3 Sunday, Oct 16 2011 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:24 am

Auntie M had been enjoying Aline Templeton’s DI Marjory Fleming series and earlier this summer brought her to readers attention. (See blog of 7/31) She is also the author of six previous stand-alones.

Now she’s successfully tracked down a copy of Templeton’s first novel in the Fleming series, Cold in the Earth, which introduces Marjory, her family, and recurring members of her team. From this beginning, it’s easy to see how the series launch attracted so much attention.

Played out against the real-life tragedy of hoof-and-mouth disease that devastated sheep and cattle farms and destroyed lives, Templeton gives us the people of the Scottish countryside near Galloway who must endure this unspeakable loss. Enter psychologist Laura Harvey, newly returned to the UK from New York, leaving behind a failed marriage and facing her mother’s funeral. The loss of her last family member gives her the impetus to renew a search for her sister Diana, “Dizzy,” who argued with her parents at the age of twenty and left home, never to be heard of again. Fifteen years later, a chance encounter brings Laura on the trail to the place her sister was last seen, the small town of Kirkluce.

The catastrophic disease comes too close to home for Marjory and her sheep farmer husband, and just as she feels she should take a leave of absence to be home with her husband, teams digging a pit for dead cattle at the Chapelton estate turn up the bones of a dead woman. Is this the missing Dizzy, or the mother of the Mason’s , who deserted the obnoxious family before Dizzy came to work there? Marjory’s investigation will turn up a family’s sinister obsession with bull running, providing an background to her first murder investigation. We see how she relies on DS Tam MacNee, the Burns-quoting sergeant, and how her family relationships affect her work and her work affects her family. With its strong atmosphere and taut narration, Cold in the Earth will leave you reaching for the next Marjory Fleming novel in a compelling new addiction.

2009’s Dead in the Water takes us to the other end of the spectrum in terms of Marjory’s growth as the head of an investigative team. The fifth novel in the series, Marjory’s family has faced growth and change, as has her team. Now a new challenge faces the detective. For political reasons she’s asked  to reopen a cold case that her late father, also a policeman, was unable to solve: the real reason behind the death twenty years ago of a young, pregnant woman, who washed up on the rocks.

Templeton shows  a woman in a high-powered, responsible position who often has to make tough choices between her job and her family. When a television crew arrives in town to film an episode of a popular detective show, the complications rise. The show’s star, Marcus Lindsay, is a local-born hero and scenes are to be filmed in his family home. He is also a former boyfriend of the dead girl, and the man the victim’s mother insists was responsible for her murder.

He brings with him an aging film star who is to have several cameo scenes in the episode, an homage to the woman he considers a step-mother, his father’s mistress. Although confined to a wheelchair, Sylvia Lascalles manages to charm the town and even Marjory’s sergeant and right-hand man, Tam MacNee.

Complicating the matter are the Polish workers whose presence antagonizes the less desirable town hooligans, adding a barrage of assaults to Marjory’s already-hectic schedule, and interfering with the immigrant Polish family who reside in the cottage at Marjory’s farm and help with the sheep and the housework, which have lightened Marjory’s home load.

Templeton manages to combine all of these subplots into a satisfying chain of events that escalate, even as charges from the Procurator Fiscal threaten to destroy Marjory’s career. The ending will provide resolution, but at a high cost to Marjory and her career, and to the memory of her father.

One thing Auntie M enjoys about this series is that Templeton’s storylines are always fresh and individual.

She continues the threads of Marjory’s home life and those of her team we’ve come to know and care about in the next novel in the series, 2010’s Cradle to Grave.

Hellish summer downpours have created flooding and may cancel plans for a three-day pop music festival planned on the grounds of Rosscarron, owned now by local lad Gillis Crozier, who has done well in the music business and bought the former shooting lodge on the Rosscarron headland as a second home.

With multiple business interests, he is also responsible for a spate of new homes  built at the mouth of the Carron, which the overflow have devastated. Questions of planning permission have led to demonstrations in the area, and there is vandalism at Rosscarron before the festival even gets started.

Then a landslide changes everything. Several small cottages on the coast are destroyed, some buried under the landfall from the overhanging cliff. A few people staying there are rescued, but a body is found in one cottage, and when it turns out the man was murdered before the landslide, the hunt is on for a killer. When the only approach bridge washes out, it sets the stage for an escalation of harm and tension, as Marjory and McNee are trapped for days at Rosscarron house.

Complicating matters is the appearance of Lisa Stewart, a young woman whose past includes being accused of allowing an infant in her care to die. Not convicted, nevertheless her past has followed her, and when she returns to the area, the bodies start to pile up. Once Marjory’s team uncovers Lisa’s ties to Gillis Crozier and his dysfunctional family, they must decide if Lisa is a victim or a ruthless murderess, settling old scores.

Fighting her own recent past actions, plus a part of her history she hadn’t faced in decades, Marjory’s investigation is also hampered by the tension between her and McNee, her most valued team member and her go-to sounding board. Something is going on in Tam McNee’s life, but the events from the last book have meant he hasn’t felt able to confide in Marjory. Will she be able to uncover the truth? As she unravels the history of those involved, the stories overlap and interconnect in unseen ways. What first started out as appearing to be a simple revenge scheme, turns out to be so much more.

This one is slickly plotted, with a high tension level thoughout the entire book. Templeton has vivid characters and uses the landscape to ratchet up her scenes. Templeton never goes for the easy fixes, and things are resolved in messy and often surprising ways.

Thanks once again to the wonderful Louise Penny for recommending this series. Auntie M hopes new readers will discover Aline Templeton’s  satisfying Marjory Fleming series.

 

Guest Blogger Suzanne Adair: Regulated for Murder Sunday, Oct 9 2011 

Award winning novelist and great read and new series Auntie M Writes Crime 12:01 am

Please welcome  award-winning novelist Suzanne Adair, a Florida native who lives in a two hundred-year-old city at the edge of the North Carolina Piedmont, named for an English explorer who was beheaded. Her suspense and thrillers transport readers to the Southern theater of the Revolutionary War, where she brings historic towns, battles, and people to life. She fuels her creativity with Revolutionary War reenacting and visits to historic sites. When she’s not writing, she enjoys cooking, dancing, hiking, and spending time with her family. Welcome Suzanne!

  Recipe for a Historical Thriller: Unexpected Hero + Hungry Readers + Neglected History

Regulated for Murder, a thriller set during the Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War, will be released 14 October. Reviewer Grace Krispy  says the plot is “…a tightly woven storyline that rang true and felt complete.” Of the protagonist, Michael Stoddard, she says, “Driven by a desire to see justice done, no matter what guise it must take, he is both sympathetic and interesting.”


Michael Stoddard appears as a criminal investigator and a minor character in my earlier mysteries Paper Woman, The Blacksmith’s Daughter, and Camp Follower. Michael is a redcoat. More than a year ago, I queried my readers about how much of a challenge the concept of redcoat as hero would present to their belief systems and comfort zones. Turns out I needn’t have been concerned. As an archetypal hero, Michael proves himself a more-than-worthy opponent for villains, particularly the archetypal shadow of the series, Dunstan Fairfax. Reviewer Debbi Mack says,” Hey! I’m cheering for the redcoat. Whose side am I on here? LOL”

All this redcoat business started back in the late 90s, when I went hunting for exciting fiction to read about the Southern theater of the Revolution—and found none. Other readers bemoaned the dearth of such fiction, so I took it upon myself to plug the gap. The result was a trilogy that showcased wartime experiences of women during the Revolution through three female protagonists. Paper Woman won the Patrick D. Smith Literature Award. Camp Follower was nominated for the Daphne du Maurier Award and the Sir Walter Raleigh Award.

I enjoy treating readers to the little-known history of the South’s role in the war. Readers enjoy exploring and learning this history. And not only does my fiction educate and entertain, it helps readers escape the “slings and arrows” of life in the 21st century. Huzzah!

What readers learn is a piece of the past skipped over in American History class. From January through November 1781, North Carolina was a strategic military focal point because the Eighty-Second Regiment, commanded by Major James Henry Craig, occupied Wilmington. We don’t often hear about a successful British campaign in American History class, so I’ve made this occupation the baseline event for Michael’s series. If you never learned that Major Craig’s activities dramatically reduced the efficacy of the Continental Army in the South and prolonged the war almost a year, you probably also don’t know about the strategic importance of Cross Creek (now called Fayetteville, North Carolina) to both the British and Continental Armies early in 1781. Or Major Craig’s desperate attempts to run dispatches to Lord Cornwallis concerning Cross Creek in January and February 1781. Or Cornwallis’s occupation of Hillsborough, North Carolina in February 1781. And history about the Regulator Rebellion, which left its scar on Hillsborough in June 1771 with Governor Tryon’s execution of six men there, is completely overshadowed by the activities of the Revolutionary War a decade later.

I folded all this neglected history into Regulated for Murder. I set Michael up as Major Craig’s dispatch runner to a loyalist contact for Cornwallis in Hillsborough in early February 1781. Then I asked, “What if?” What if Michael found the loyalist contact freshly murdered upon his arrival in Hillsborough? What if Michael had no way to continue his mission except by solving the murder? What if the executions of six Regulators ten years earlier figured into Michael’s February 1781 woes? And what if Michael had a secret that, if exposed, could earn him courts martial and execution? The result was a historical thriller titled Regulated for Murder.

And there’s much more to the Revolutionary War history of North Carolina in 1781. A full, exciting series worth. Welcome to Michael Stoddard’s series. It’s my honor and pleasure to let the rollout of real historical events dictate Michael’s external conflicts while I develop his internal growth across the year 1781 and persuade you to cheer for the redcoat.

For ten years, an execution hid murder. Then Michael Stoddard came to town.

Bearing a dispatch from his commander in coastal Wilmington, North Carolina, redcoat Lieutenant Michael Stoddard arrives in Hillsborough in February 1781 in civilian garb. He expects to hand a letter to a courier working for Lord Cornwallis, then ride back to Wilmington the next day. Instead, Michael is greeted by the courier’s freshly murdered corpse, a chilling trail of clues leading back to an execution ten years earlier, and a sheriff with a fondness for framing innocents—and plans to deliver Michael up to his nemesis, a psychopathic British officer.

Thanks, Suzanne! Readers can look for Regulated for Murder at Amazon, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble.

Visit her blog (http://www.suzanneadair.typepad.com/) and web site (http://www.suzanneadair.com/) for more information.

Follow her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/Suzanne.Adair.Author/), Twitter (http://twitter.com/Suzanne_Adair/), and Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1188958.Suzanne_Adair/).

Did you like what you read? Learn about downloads, discounts, and special offers from Suzanne Adair and her author friends. Subscribe to Suzanne’s free newsletter (http://tinyletter.com/Suzanne-Adair-News/).

 

Guest Blogger Lisa Black: Defensive Wounds Sunday, Oct 2 2011 

great read and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:05 am

 

Today’s guest blogger is Lisa Black.

Lisa Black spent the happiest five years of her life in a morgue. Strange, perhaps, but true. After ten years as a secretary, she went back to school to get a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Cleveland State University. In her job as a forensic scientist at the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office, she analyzed gunshot residue on hands and clothing, hairs, fibers, paint, glass, DNA, blood and many other forms of trace evidence, as well as crime scenes.

She had her life sorted out just the way she liked it, until her husband got fed up with Cleveland snow and moved them to Florida, 1400 miles away from her family and her career. Not that she’s bitter or anything. Now she is a certified latent print examiner for the Cape Coral police department and works mostly with fingerprints and crime scenes.

Defensive Wounds begins with a murder at a defense attorney convention in the beautiful Ritz-Carlton hotel, located in Cleveland’s most recognizable landmark—the Terminal Tower, with its 700 foot high observation deck.

Theresa’s daughter Rachael is out of college for the summer and working there at the front desk; in fact she’s the first to alert Theresa to the homicide.

This little coincidence begins to complicate Theresa’s life as she realizes that her daughter is falling for a handsome coworker—and then finds out how this boy once stood trial for a brutal crime. In fact, the first victim had been his attorney. But the attorney also had a host of enemies, many of whom are also attending this convention.

Theresa has the walls closing in from every direction—she is trying to work under the scrutiny of people who will use everything she says or does against her in the court of law, if possible. Her crime scene is a hotel, littered with the microscopic debris of past guests that may or may not be relevant to the murder. Her daughter might be falling under the sway of a very dangerous man.

And the killer is not yet finished.

 Lisa’s books, which include Trail of Blood, have been published in Germany, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Spain and Japan. Evidence of Murder reached the NYT mass market bestseller’s list. They can be found on Amazon.com; at Barnes & Noble; and at independent bookstores.

 

Louise Penny: A Trick of the Light Sunday, Sep 25 2011 

Award winning novelist and Continued series winner and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:58 am

The wonderful Canadian author Louise Penny is back with the next installment in her award winning series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, his team, and the villagers of Three Pines in A Trick of the Light.

This seventh novel starts with a dream-come-true moment for artist Clara Morrow–a solo show at Montreal’s famed Musee d’Art Contemporain. Penny launches us into the heart of Clara’s terror with the opening lines “Oh, no, no, no, thought Clara Morrow as she walked toward the closed doors.”

Despite her nerves, Clara’s show is a success, the culmination of a life’s work beside her husband, Peter, also an artist. Their celebration continues to a party that evening at their home in the tiny Quebec village of Three Pines, filled with the assortment of quirky and endearing character’s who readers of Penny’s work have come to love and admire.

But the tone quickly changes when a woman’s body is found the next morning in Clara’s garden, and the victim turns out to be a college friend of the Morrow’s and a former close friend to Clara. Who would want to murder Lillian Dyson? And why is she in the Morrow’s garden? The head of homicide for the Surete du Quebec is called in, and Inspect. Gamache brings his team and all of their troubles with him, as they are still healing from the physical and psychic wounds incurred in last year’s magnificent Bury Your Dead.

The art world is represented in Three Pines, from artists to gallery owners,  and all quickly come under suspicion, as well as the Morrow’s themselves. Penny develops the theme of shadow and light that embraces all of her novels, as she explores the face we show the world and the one we keep to ourselves. Gamache’s investigation will uncover deep secrets, and truths that have been hidden which color the world when they are exposed to the light of day. There are consequences for all of the people involved, as Gamache finds a killer even as he struggles with the problems buried deeply within his team and himself.

I thought Bury Your Dead (which just won an Anthony and a Macavity after already winning an Agatha and a Dilys), with its three main story lines and dramatic turns, couldn’t be topped. I was wrong. The message here, that ‘trick of the light,’ will capture you. Penny’s description of the universal shading of truth and deception, along with the way each person seeing the same situation can have dramatically different points of view,  are all compellingly illustrated. The ending of this book moved me deeply with its last visual scene.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Penny in person a few weeks ago in Maine, on the second day of her book promotion tour. A delightful storyteller, her wit and charm captivated the audience of over a hundred squeezed into the downstairs of Kennebooks bookstore, hanging on her every word.

After reading a brief passage from the new book, Penny described her pathway to becoming a novelist, including her childhood fears, long journalism career, and years of interviewing authors for the CBC. She answered questions readily and honestly, with a wise wit, often quoting from poets who inspire her. She also described the eighth book in the series, which readers will have to wait a year to read.

Any reader who had read Penny’s blog has a good sense of the person behind the novels: the importance of her husband, Michael, their dogs and their home; the small comforts we can identify with and share, from good food to good friends; her delight as the books have gained prominence and continue to win awards. Penny has the distinction of winning FOUR Agatha Awards in a row, a first for any mystery novelist.

Penny was gracious about her success and thanked her enthusiastic readers for helping to spread interest in the series. Her audience was left with a sense of meeting a “new” old friend, one her readers hope will continue to amaze and delight us in the future.

 

Far Cry by John Harvey Sunday, Sep 18 2011 

Award winning novelist and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:04 am

John Harvey is the winner of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger Award, among a host of other awards and honors. Through the years Auntie M has enjoyed both his Charlie Resnick and Frank Elder series.

Now he returns with Far Cry, a story that brings every parent’s worst fear to mind.  

When two teenaged girls go off on a camping trip to Cornwall, only one will return. Heather is the daughter of Ruth and Simon, and when the girl’s body is found in in an old mine, the strain causes her parents to divorce. Each parent copes very differently; Ruth remarries and moves away and tries to start a new life. She even has another child with her new husband. Beatrice is almost same age as Heather was when she died when the unthinkable happens: Beatrice disappears.

Enter Detective Helen Walker, whose investigation takes her to Cornwall to seek a connection between Heather’s death and Beatrice’s disappearance. The officer in charge of the case, Will Grayson, fears a recently paroled child abuser has abducted Beatrice.

But as the two officers wade through the past and closely examine the present, Will becomes suspicious the person who took Beatrice knew her. A race against time begins to rescue an innocent child.

One of the pleasing  aspects of Harvey’s police procedurals is the depth he manages to give his officers, from their private lives to their professional. His characters throughout his novels are described by Marilyn Stasio of the New York Times Book Review as “defiantly alive and unruly.”

If you haven’t read a John Harvey novel, it’s not too late to discover master of the genre.

 

Reginald Hill: The Woodcutter Sunday, Sep 11 2011 

Award winning novelist and great read and mystery to die for Auntie M Writes Crime 12:14 am

The Woodcutter is perhaps the sublime Reginald Hill’s most ambitious and well-plotted novel to date. With the Cumbrian landscape a definitive aspect of the novel, Hill manages to take us on a journey of lies and deceit, where love is confused with power, and only a handful of people know what truths prompt the action.

Hill goes back to his Cumbrian roots in The Woodcutter, presenting us with an unlikely hero: Wolf Hadda, son of a woodcutter, an experienced Lake District hiker and climber, who rises from his humble beginnings to the heights of successful entrepreneurship.

Wolf is living a fairy tale existence with his wife, Imogen, only child of Sir Leon and Lady Kira Ulphingstone. Wolf’s father Fred had been Sir Leon’s forestry manager. When Imogen and Wolf fall in love, the young man embarks on an odyssey to make himself worthy of her. After educating himself, gaining polish and a huge business empire, the two married and have one child, a daughter Ginny. With a private jet, a knighthood for services to commerce, and five homes, Wolf is sleeping soundly in his Holland Park home next to Imogen, when the ringing of a bell in the early morning hours changes everything he knows and has built.

With his life destroyed and everyone who loved him abandoning him, Wolf is thrown into prison under repulsive circumstances, protesting his innocence. A tragic accident disfigures him, but nothing could maim him more than the loss of his wife and child, as well as the complete and utter destruction of the life he took such pains to build.

It will take the talents of a young prison psychiatrist, Alva Ozigbo, to gain parole for the silent Wolf Hadda, but once home in Cumbria at the house his father left him, the quest for truth and revenge takes over Wolf’s life. Will Wolf figure out who set him up, and how will he react? Can Alva prevent him from being returned to prison? Does he have a chance at any kind of well-deserved future happiness?

Auntie M is a huge Hill fan, from the wonderful Andy Dalziel and Peter Pascoe series, to his delectable stand-alones. He’s won numerous awards including CWA’s Cartier Diamond Dagger Lifetime Achievement Award. This time around he has written a huge novel where each character’s flaws stand out and multiply, as the unbelievable sequence of events roll forward.

This is an intense and well-plotted book, with the threads of numerous story lines of Wolf’s history merging like a tightly-woven quilt. Ian Rankin says of Hill: “Reginald Hill’s novels are really dances to the music of time, his heroes and villains interconnecting, their stories entwining.

Don’t miss this entertaining and solidly written novel by a true master author.

 

New Series Additions from the UK Sunday, Sep 4 2011 

Award winning novelist and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:28 am

Today’s blog highlights two UK authors whose series Auntie M follows.

Stephen Booth’s Derbyshire mysteries have caught on so well that the Guardian calls him “a modern master of rural noir.” The Peak District is always well explored in terms of the dark setting, and this is evident from the opening scene in Lost River.

Detective Constable Ben Cooper is on a Bank Holiday in May when an eight-year-old girl tragically drowns and he is helpless to save her. As this event haunts him, he becomes entangled with the dead girl’s family and the secrets they hide. Was this a horrible accident or a murder? Despite being warned off, he continues to investigate, which brings consequences to his personal and professional life.

In a continuing thread, Detective Sergeant Diane Fry returns to her home town of Birmingham to face the reopening of a case that hits too close to home. The area’s inner city streets are well-drawn, as is Fry’s fraught relationships with her sister, foster parents, and people from her past she learns she can’t really trust. Fry tries to preserve herself as she digs deeply for truths that will be startling and change the way she looks at people she thought she knew.

Booth’s books are well plotted and have a rich, dark atmosphere. The taut relationship between the prickly Fry and the softer Cooper has never shone brighter.

M. R. Hall’s Jenny Cooper mysteries are rapidly gaining an audience in the US. The Redeemed is the next installment in this series that relies heavily on Hall’s knowledge as a former criminal lawyer.

Jenny is Severn Vale District Coroner, a position she fights hard to keep every day, whether she’s battling her own interior ghosts or those of outsiders who’d like her to rubber stamp death certificates. She takes her job seriously, and we  are behind her every step of the way as she battles her inner demons to find the strength to serve justice for those dead.

Hall does a fine job of explaining the differences between a criminal court and that of the Her Majesty’s Coroner, and he’s also well-versed in the debilitating anxiety and panic attacks Cooper struggles with. Her personal life is a mess: a son who spends most of his time with his father; an ex-husband whose new wife is pregnant; and a lover who needs a commitment from her, one she’s not certain she can give. She relies on pills to get her through the torment of her days and nights.

Living just over the border in Wales, that countryside is beautifully described; the area becomes a haven for Cooper in her investigation into three separate deaths. What looks like a suicide becomes more when a Jesuit priest appeals to her for help on behalf of one of  his charges, who confessed to the murder of former adult actress Eva Donaldson. Eva has become a world-renowned anti-pornography crusader. Her murder investigation was rapidly closed when a former inmate, newly out on probation, confessed to her murder.

Father Lucas Starr is not above using emotional blackmail to urge Cooper to look again at Eva’s death. When the suicide that opens the novel is joined by a second, and both were members of Eva’s politically charged charismatic Mission Church of God, Jenny starts to agree that the surface story is far from the truth.

Her inquests will ruffle feathers of the wealthy and the mighty, who use their money and position to block her at every turn. They are not above resurrecting an old family tragedy in the news, one which haunts Jenny as her memory is wiped clean for that time period. Confronting that memory puts Jenny on a fearful inner journey to confront the ghosts of her past. Using the law and her hard-won strength to continue, Jenny feels alone in her quest for the real story. Even Jenny’s court officer is unreliable in terms of support, as Alison is struggling with her husband’s infidelity.

It’s only when Father Starr brings help, just as Jenny reaches the end of her options, that she claws her way to finding the resolution the cases demand, at tremendous personal cost.

Hall’s  Jenny is a flawed woman but an appealing character. Quick to feel frustration and lash out, he manages to have her retain our sympathy and understanding, especially when the decks become stacked against her. You’ll be rooting for Jenny to survive.

 

 

Two Masters of Humor Sunday, Aug 28 2011 

Award winning novelist and great read and mystery to die for and Series not to be missed Auntie M Writes Crime 12:57 am

These  are great summer reads, whether you are on the beach or sitting at home. But don’t think either of these masterful authors are just for summer, either. Both have great backlists to explore.

Alexander McCall Smith’s humorous series are always endearing yet truthful.  The second offering in the Corduroy Mansions series is The Dog Who Came in From the Cold. This series takes place in the Pimlico section of London,with Smith’s sense of setting is as firm as ever.


Pimlico terrier Freddie de la Hay lightens the life of failed oenophile William French. The breed may be made up, but French’s affection for this little dog is not. What happens when Freddie is pressed by MI6 into the service of Her Majesty’s government is just one of the delightful story threads followed in this installment, which revolves around the residents of the worn Pimlico mansion of the series title.

Berthea Snark is the psychiatrist who finds herself out of love with her own son and plotting to write his biography to set the world straight about her MP son. It’s her brother Terence who has her attention at the moment, that trusting soul whose newest infatuation is with a New Age couple who have convinced Terence his home is the preordained place for their cosmological studies. Berthea must snap into action to rout out the scammers, and how she goes about it is just one of the silly but lovable portions of the book. We also continue the story of literary agent Barbara Ragg,who has a new love in her life, and an old contract with a writer who insists he is being dictated the autobiography of a Yeti. With Barbara in Scotland, her partner, Rupert Porter, struggles to catch a look of this Yeti. “Hilarity ensues” doesn’t begin to describe Rupert’s fall from grace, but there are anchovies involved.

With his trademark wit and insights into human behavior that prove universal, it’s small wonder McCall Smith is adored in many countries.

Next up is CWA Silver, Gold and Diamond dagger winner Peter Lovesey. With stand alones and three other series, Stagestruck is the newest in his Inspector Peter Diamond series, set in Bath.

Lovesey is not afraid to take risks with his character’s lives, which I admire. In this outing, Diamond’s love life is stable for the moment. It’s his professional life that is driving him to confront his own phobia, which revolves around the theater, and which he is forced to confront when murders start to multiply at the Bath’s Theatre Royal.

Lovesey is another writer who uses his setting to enhance his novels, and we are transported to Bath and to the drama that takes place in theatre life behind the curtain. It starts when a pop diva debuts in a production designed to resurrect her failing career. With mixed feelings about her talent on stage, but great anticipation from her fans, opening night disaster strikes when she appears and within moments steps out of character and screams, clawing at her face.

Disfiguring burns, traced to her stage makeup, have ended her stage career before it began. When the makeup artist is found dead, Diamond and his team must sort through the rivalries of the cast and crew to find a murderer. Along the way, there are encounters with a theatre ghost, and the addition to Diamond’s team of a riddling detective who drives him crazy. Lovesey’s humor is at the top of his form here, but he has a knack of never letting it detract from his well-constsructed plot. The Chicago Tribune has said: “Lovesey’s books are so beautifully constructed and cleanly written that they could be used as textbooks in a crime writing course.”

 

On the Nickel: Maggie Toussaint Sunday, Aug 21 2011 

Award winning novelist and great read and writers Auntie M Writes Crime 12:32 am

Auntie M has been showcasing UK authors you to investigate, and now she turns her focus to home. Georgia author Maggie Toussaint is a trained scientist who loves a good puzzle, which is why she tackles mysteries in addition to writing romantic and contemporary suspense novels.

Of interest to note is one of Toussaint’s romantic suspense novel, No Second Chance, whose proceeds benefit Day’s End Farm Horse Rescue in Lisbon, MD, which rescues horses from all over the country.

One to look for on Amazon.com or in Barnes & Noble is Toussaint’s second Cleopatra Jones novel, On the Nickel.

In For A Penny introduced single mother Cleopatra Jones an avid-but-awful golfer and competent accountant, who lives in rural Maryland and has an engaging family life. On the Nickel is the second in this series, and finds Cleo is watching over her hugely pregnant St. Bernard, two teenaged daughters, and her strong-willed mother, all while trying to contend with a new love in her life and an ex-husband who wants her back.

As if that wasn’t enough drama for any woman to handle, her mother becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation, when Mama’s church-lady rival, Erica Hodges, is run over with a car–several times. Then Cleo finds a huge dent in Mama’s Olds, and Mama refuses to discuss her movements on the night in question.

Toussaint gets all the points right: love-able but demanding teenagers; the push from an ex wanting a second chance; the pull of an exciting new love; even the behind-the-scenes hierarchy and drama of Southern churchwomen groups.

This is perfect for summer reading, with its lighthearted, balanced storyline combining more than a hint of romance, as Cleo scrambles find the real murderer of Erica Hodges, and all before her St. Bernard delivers those puppies!

Maggie Toussaint is a member of numerous organizations including Sisters in Crime. To learn more about her and her other novels, visit: http://www.maggietousssaint.com.

 

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